- The projects will be provided with the chances of development through the intensive Lab and Training and of various grants, funding and in-kind support. And all the participants can have business meetings with key Korean and international documentary professionals.

Docs Port Incheon, Korea’s one and only documentary project market, has been providing various business opportunities to both Korean and Asian documentary projects for the past three years. Now DPI has disclosed 31 new finalists for the edition of 2017. From July 14 through 28, 136 documentary projects from 16 countries in Asia, including Korea, were submitted on-line, and 10 for Korean Project Pitch (K-Pitch), 10 for Asian Project Pitch (A-Pitch) and 11 for Rough Cut Sales were handpicked.

For K-Pitch session, a range of experienced and young directors will come to Incheon with various projects, of which the subjects are environment, socio-political and women’s issues, poverty, and family. Among them are the award-winning directors HWANG Yun(<Old Dolphins’ Homecoming>), JEONG Jae-eun(<Cats’ Apartment>),MOON Chang-yong(<The Inescapable Mountain>). The co-director of <Diving Bell>, AHN Hae-ryong will visit DPI with the project <The Voice of the Voiceless>, another documentary about sex slavery run by Japan during the WWⅡ. The star of DPI 2015, MA Min-ji(<Bubble Family>) returns this year as a producer of <Flame Feminist Action!> by YOON Ga-hyeon.

This year DPI apparently drew more attention from Asian documentary makers. Seventy brilliant projects from 15 countries had to go through tough competition and 10 distinguished projects could get the tickets to DPI. The A-Pitch projects are also various in subject and style. Terrorists' rehabilitation(<Terrorist Whisperer>by Justin ONG, Indonesia), women's trafficking(<Missing>by Miriam Chandy MENACHERRY, India) and the recruitment of army and the youth(<No Boys Land>by Nontawat NUMBENCHAPOL, Thailand). Don't jump to judge that the pitches will be too serious. <A is for Augustin>by Grace SIMBULAN(the Philippines), <Where the Peach is in Bloom>by Chunhua JIANG(China) and <Flickering Lights>by Anupama SRINIVASAN and Anirban DUTTA (India) are those that will make you smile.

At Rough Cut Sales, 11 projects will be presented, which is an all-time record. One more thing to be noted is that many of the participants of former DPI were submitted and selected. PARK Gyeong-geun's <Army: 600 Thousand Portraits>was introduced at DPI 2014 and <Host Nation>by LEE Ko-woon was in 2015. We had also <Reborn>(IM Heung-soon) and <Counters>(LEE Il-ha), both of which was selected for K-Pitch in 2015. It's another pleasure to see A-Pitch project <My Dear Lines>(ZHANG Nan, China, 2014) and to have it for RCS this year. You can say that it's time for harvest as we've sown for several years! However, there're many other new and promising projects which will be introduced at DPI this year for the first time.

Except the 11 Rough Cut Sales entries, 20 Korean and Asian projects will go through project development with domestic and international documentary experts at ‘Docu Lab’ which will take place from 15th to 18th September in Seoul. For the non-Korean Asian participants, DPI provides the flights. We expect the Lab will be a good chance for the directors to develop the story-telling, establishing the characters and structure of their works.

One of the most anticipated documentary events in Korea and Asia, the 4th Annual Docs Port Incheon will be held from November 2 to 5 at Olympos Hotel Incheon (Former Paradise Hotel Incheon). For more information on this year’s event and accreditation, visit Docs Port Incheon’s official website - www.idocs-port.org.